The EU Naval Force achieved an impressive milestone this week by successfully completing its 300th close protection of a World Food Programme (WFP) vessel along the Somali coastline.
This means that nearly one million tonnes of food aid, including wheat, grain and sorghum, destined for the Somali people, has been protected by the EU Naval Force as part of the European Union’s counter-piracy efforts off the coast of Somalia.
Since the crisis of 2011, when four million Somalis experienced extreme food insecurity and famine, the WFP assesses that the situation is now improving. This improvement is attributed to successive seasons of average-to-above-average rainfall, increased livestock prices, improved milk availability, low prices of both local and imported staple food commodities, and sustained humanitarian intervention by the WFP and other humanitarian aid organisations.
A 50kg bag of grounded sorghum can produce approximately 300 loaves of bread. As the EU Naval Force has protected more than 45,000 tonnes of sorghum in the past six weeks, this figure equates to 900,000 bags, or indeed, 270 million loaves of bread!